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Ankhegs, Bots, and Recollections
Having received reports of an oncoming storm drawing around the mountain castle to the north, Paradigm-3, Willow, Kara, Lazarus, and Tatsuya dispatched to investigate sightings of strange glowing ankhegs with wings and the power of flight. The trip to the mountains, while uneventful, held a large bout of terse silence as the new Drow demonstrated very little trust for her fellow adventurers on their way, staying awake several nights in order to keep an eye out both for oncoming danger and potential attacks from the strangers she now was tasked to fight beside. The nights passed uneventfully, save for a strange boney creature watching the group for a bit from underground before disappearing from view. Upon arriving at the mountains, the group did their best to keep stealth and scan the skies for any of the glowing ankhegs. Some were less than successful in their rolls, but Paradigm and Willow managed to keep a low profile as Willow scanned with her owl. The ankhegs seemed to be emerging from a higher window in the looming castle set on a taller hill– a castle which was known to the group as the home and lair of the powerful wizard, Sallar Archburrow– one by one, and in turn would descend into a lower area filled with debris and rubble. The ankhegs fought a mechanical snake there, causing the creature to spark with electricity. The group quickly dispatched with the clearly venomous creatures, and after finishing off the last of them, Willow retreated into a small cabin as a respite from the sun. Paradigm managed to catch sight of a figure standing on the balcony of the castle, but they were too far away to fully see The rest of the group followed, and Willow was able to find a small hatch leading into an underground cavern. Begrudgingly, the Drow followed the rest of the group as they charged their way down. Below, the group found mechanical creatures in various states of disrepair, along with blueprints and components that seemed to resemble Paradigm's. After fighting two large constructs, the group found the corpse of a man across from a very large automaton that had been burned to a crisp. Just then, Willow was able to detect the sound of boots climbing down the stairs they had descended, and some of the group hid. A man emerged, revealing himself to be Sallar Archburrow himself, the very wizard known for unleashing havoc on the island and its residents. He seemed to be crying, and noticed Paradigm standing in the doorway. The two had an emotional conversation– Sallar and his lover, Quentin (the corpse found by the giant automaton) were responsible in tandem for Paradigm's creation, calling them "their child". Sallar held responsibility for the Warforged's soul, while Quentin, an accomplished artificer, had designed the chassis to house it. Paradigm was compromised by this information, and was willing immediately to follow Sallar through a portal made into the castle. The rest of the party was not to easily trusting, and Kara subjected the wizard to a Zone of Truth spell, which he willingly did not resist. She interrogated him for a time, finding his words to be true, and the rest followed with Willow putting up more than a little resistance. Only with a successful persuasion on Kara's behalf did the Drow not leave for Krakenfall then and there. Arriving at the castle, Sallar told of his past with Paradigm as best he could, explaining that their success in making a Warforged that could feel, learn, and remember was to be replicated; their hubris caused their next failure to be their last, with the larger prototype growing angry and volatile. It killed Quentin, and in a rage for the loss of his lover, Sallar destroyed the prototype and lacerated Paradigm's memory. He then offered the opportunity to the Warforged to fix their damaged memory banks, which Paradigm refused, knowing that their storage left was finite and not any that they wanted to lose. The party accepted small magical parcels as gifts of appreciation from Sallar, and the potential for collaboration in the future, so long as the wizard takes responsibility for the messes he makes.